The Draconic Chronicles
by Captain Walrus
Summary: MORE IN-DEPTH SUMMARY FOUND INSIDE: In a land where myths and legends are a regular occurrence. Dragons rule as the dominant species and peace reigns. Or so it was believed. This story is a tale on how many individuals from various different walks of life can all have their destinies intertwined and how the actions of one can effect another. Rated T for violence and mild language.
1. Chapter I

**Chapter I: Introductions and Interactions**

**In a land where dragons are the dominant species who coexist with many other sentient creatures and draw their powers from various magical elements that govern the shape the world and beings who dwell within. A time of peace reigns over the many empires that dominate the world. But although the movers and shakers of the world remain dormant, Smaller factions wage war over land and resources.**

**This story is a tale on how many individuals from various different walks of life can still have their destinies intertwined and how the smallest of actions of one could have a dramatic effect on another. There is no such thing as "True" peace, and fate has a cruel way of reminding us.**

Above Aveius valley a realm where the element of wind was most dominant, a young dragon of the same element was flying high above the damp valley below, having rained the previous night. The dragon who went by the name Skye was partway into his teenage years and stood at seven feet and four inches tall, which was about average for his age. His frame was of a slender build with large wings, typical of his elemental type but even as a wind dragon his wings and tail was much larger than normal. His scales were bluish gray in colour with a with a lighter shade for his underbelly, claws, horns and wing membrane. His two horns came out of the sides of his head just above and behind his light brown eyes and curved forwards and up in a crescent moon shaped arc with the tips almost pointing directly behind him.

His destination in question was the small city of Tyrsfall which laid a short distance away from him. The city of Tyrsfall was split into two main districts, the larger south-eastern part was called the Dust District and was named after the slightly enclosed dusty streets that and dark back alleys spanning from the main pathways. most of the residents live within the Dust District but it doesn't only consist of housing. The Dust District also contains a cheap marketplace that sells inexpensive, low quality goods and a tavern was also located in the Dust District where many residents spent their earnings. The north-western district was called the Market District after the large marketplace that dominated the area which sold a larger variety of higher quality goods compared to Dust District along with the market there other larger buildings that housed the richer families and a huge garden area which was often referred to the Garden District and served as a park and communal gathering area. Also located within the Market District was the more important buildings like Tyrsfall manor which housed the ruling family, the barracks where the town guards were trained and organised and the school know as Tyrsfall Academy were many dragons were taught about the working of the world around them as well as how to fight and control their elemental powers which was located near the Garden District.

Once Skye reached a certain point above the city he closed his wings and span around in entrance to a plummet. As Skye fell he closed his eyes, lengthened his body into a dive and began to scream as a way to vent his excitement at the sudden adrenaline rush.

As he neared towards the ground, Skye opened his eyes and unfurled his wings to slow his descent to a steady glide. The wind dragon then turned his attention to his goal and this was Tyrsfall academy which he spent a while gathering enough money to pay the admission fee.

As Skye closed in on the school suddenly he saw a yellow blur moving faster than he could clearly see explode past him and enter the school ahead. "What was that thing?" he wondered to himself. After discarding the thought he continued towards the entrance where he saw a royal blue scaled dragon who jumped out of the way of the yellow blur and was cautiously walking towards the entrance.

He also saw two other dragons sitting on the steps to the school, one of them was also blue but was a lighter, more faded hue whilst the other was emerald green. They both were sitting down and the green one was looking towards where the yellow blur went whilst the other just glanced before returning to its business.

Skye reached the front gate shortly after the blue dragon entered and he started walking up the stairs to the school. He looked around him taking in the scenery. A small wall surrounded the school that was significantly taller than Skye. It was built mostly for cosmetic purposes because it could only stop non-dragons from getting in, although they could always walk around it and enter through the front gate or climb over it is they were desperate. To the east of the school there was a large garden area that had multiple lakes and many pockets of trees scattered around with pathways winding throughout the garden as a guide for visitors. Skye then turned his attention to the dragons ahead whom he could make out in better detail.

The Faded light blue dragon was male with deep navy blue eyes and two medium sized horns that curved out the side of his head and thrusted forwards with the tips pointing inwards and four smaller horns came out the back of his head, two near the top and two more about halfway down. His underbelly was a slightly lighter hue and his tail had a long, sharp, serrated bodkin-arrow shaped blade at the end. Judging from his colour as well as his somewhat slender yet muscular frame Skye could tell that the blue one was an ice dragon.

The green dragon was smaller and younger than the ice dragon she was also female. She had two horns coming out of the sides of her head right near the top and they curved backwards with the tips pointing down slightly. She had yellowy-green coloured eyes while her horns were olive green and her wing membranes were a slightly lighter shade of green to her scales. She had a short, dark green mane that came down to her shoulders. She was also quite attractive.

Both of the dragons were reading books so they weren't paying too much attention to Skye. as he got closer both of them looked up although the ice dragon just looked back down again the female just stared at him with one eye ridge raised. She then closed her book which was titled Alchemists Guide to Common Flora and Their Uses and before putting it away in her satchel hanging from her left flank and continued to look at him expectantly.

After a few seconds of silence she spoke.

"Need something?"

Skye shook his head quickly before replying nervously. "Errm... no... I was just curious about what you was reading and, err..."

"It's rude to stare y'know."

"Sorry I was... just... errm." With that comment Skye began to blush.

The female dragon just smiled back and said.

"Haven't see you around before. Are you new? The names Ivy by the way."

She then extended her paw for a handshake. Skye then relaxed before shaking her hand.

"I actually have just moved into town so I'm kinda new here. I was just about to join the school. Oh and my names Skye. By the way who's the other one, If you don't mind me asking"

"Oh this is Haile... Haile? you mind getting your head out that book for a second?"

The ice dragon just muttered "hey" without even as much as glancing up at Skye

"Don't mind him, he tends to get a bit caught up when it comes to studying. Anyway, have you by any chance seen a fire dragon along your way"

"Errm... Nope, sorry. Why?"

"Damn it. He should be here by now... What's taking him so long?"

"Hes probably still asleep knowing him" Haile commented. Before returning to his book.

"Anyway... Skye you probably should go sign up, you don't want to be late for lessons, do you?" "I'll see you around"

Skye then proceeded through the entrance into the lobby.

Inside the entrance lobby there was a bulky, brown scaled earth dragon with large ram-like horns curving out of his head. He sat at a desk near the end of the room.

As Skye made his way to the desk a door to the right burst open and a small yellow dragon shot out and ran past Skye at a dizzying speed, out the main entrance.

"Oh that's what it was."

He then continued to the desk where the earth dragon sat.

The earth dragon looked down at Skye with his tired green eyes and said in a bored and unenthusiastic tone "If you want to enter you must first state your name, age, element and pay twenty silvers. If you don't have enough money then you can pay in multiple sums over a period of time or leave and come back with more money... or whatever"

Skye immediately stuck his paw into a pouch located on one of the satchels hanging from his flanks. It was secured by leather belts that went around his back, avoiding the wing joints by a few inches and clipped together underneath him forming a cross-shaped harness. Skye then withdrew a clawful of silver coins and counted out twenty before handing them over to the receptionist.

After handing over the money the young dragon said "my name is Skye which is spelt with an "E" on the end, I'm sixteen years old and I'm a wind dragon" After Skye spoke the earth dragon then muttered to himself _"kids these days with their fancily spelt names_"

Afterwards the receptionist handed a help guide and an emblem to authenticate that he's a student. The help guide contained a map and other useful information about the school before saying "Your first class is in room M1 you can find it on the map"

"Thank you." Skye replied.

As the wind dragon walked off the receptionist muttered to himself. "Whatever."

* * *

The yellow dragon stopped outside the school entrance and immediately burst into conversation

"HeyHaileheyIvyhaveyouseenAsharoundhereheshouldbeh erebynowI'velookedeverywereforhimIhaventfoundhiman ywereishelatedoyouknowwhenhescomingbythewaywhatare youtworeadinganywayalsowhostheotherguyishenewherei shejoiningtheschool is he, is he?"

Sparky was a small, energetic young lightning dragon and was a few years younger than Haile and Ivy. He was bright yellow in colour and had a smooth beak instead of a muzzle with a small horn protruding from the middle. He had a frill at the back of his head where long wavy vibrant pink hair extended from going halfway across his back, the roots of his hair were electric purple which faded to pink partway down, his underbelly and wing membrane were a slightly more faded shade of yellow. One of his more unique features was that his right eye was blue whilst his left one was green and he also had smooth skin instead of the partly developed scales that Haile and Ivy had, making him somewhat more fragile than them.

The hyperactive young dragon then stood impatiently while waiting for an answer...

"Sparky, what did I tell you about talking too fast?"

While Ivy spoke, Haile just smirked and continued reading.

"ThatnooneunderstandsmewhenItalktoofastalthoughthi sishowitalknormalybutwhenitalknormalyitsoundstoofa sttootherpeople isthatit huh? huh?"

"Sparky. Could you calm down and start again, please?"

"Okay!" Sparky yelled with a grin.

"HaveyouseenAsharoundhere? heshouldbeherebynow I'velookedeverywere for him butIcouldn'tfindhimanywere, doyouknowwhenhe'scoming? andwhostheotherguy? ishenewhere? ishejoiningtheschool?"

"Wasthatanybetter?"

Ivy stopped for a moment to think before answering him.

"A bit, and no I haven't see Ash either, Also if your talking about the wind dragon then his names Skye and he seems okay, he was apparently just going to join the school a moment ago."

"Speaking of which" Haile commented before gesturing with a nod of his head towards the newest arrival.

As Ivy looked towards where Haile pointed she heard Sparky scream in excitement.

"ASH!"

Sparky then tackle-hugged a fire dragon who just landed, almost knocking him over.

Ash was a large male fire dragon who stood taller than both Ivy and Haile despite the fact that he was the same age as Ivy. He was red in colour with a brick-red underbelly and wing membrane. He had green eyes, two charcoal grey horns that came out the side of his head and thrusted forward, curving up and inwards near the tips. They came out partly above eye level which he sometimes had a problem with because they sometimes got in the way of where he was looking. He also had a faded scar in the shape of a claw mark on his right cheek and another more deeper one going diagonally across his chest.

"Ooof."

"Did ya miss me squirt?" Ash chuckled whilst Sparkly clutched firmly to his chest.

"Okay, you can let go now" And with that comment Sparky let go. Ash then stopped to catch his breath for a moment before looking towards Ivy.

"Soooo, Hows it goin beautiful?" flirted Ash while winking at Ivy, Who just rolls her eyes.

_"Forgot how much he does that..."_

"Lets just go to class before we're late" Ivy replied.

The four of them then made their way into the school after Ivy and Haile put their books away inside the large satchels hanging from their flanks..

"Oversleep again?" Haile asked Ash.

"Not all of us are workaholics like you Haile"

"And not all of us are slackers like you" Haile shot back.

"No-one is a slacker like you Ash" Ivy cut in.

"Heeeey... Not my fault if I need my beauty sleep"

"Not enough time in the day for that Ash... not enough time in the day" Ivy responded.

"Admit it, you left yourself open for that one" Haile commented

"I did didn't I?" Ash then tilted his head to its side pretended to ponder.

"Careful, you might hurt yourself" Haile and Ivy said at the same time. Ivy then burst out laughing along with Sparky while Haile just chuckled to himself.

Ash then pulled a face before joining in.

* * *

**Okay that's it for the first chapter. Any feedback, compliments, questions or opinions about the characters or the layout would be greatly appreciated as well as if you point out any typos or grammar errors that you find.**

**The more in depth you review the better I'd get to know the reactions of the public and in turn help me develop as a writer. Feel free to do a review of every single character and detail if you like.**

**Also this is my first story so please be nice... Or flame me into oblivion (ouch), it's your choice. Oh and for future reference "Aviean" is not a typo of Avian.**

**I'll try to update as often as I can as well take my time to read any comments you make.**

**"Is burning a glass of orange juice a sign that I should stick to takeaways?"**

_"Random musings of the Walrus."_


	2. Chapter II

**Chapter II: Friends and Foes**

A water dragon was wandering through one of the many corridors of the school. Her eyes focused on a map and mind pondering away.

The dragon in question was royal-blue in colour and light blue eyes, she didn't have any horns. Her face ended in a beak-like muzzle. She had an elongated, streamlined body and Her wings weren't very big, developed for swimming rather than flying. She was a bit older than she looked being 16 years old. She was quite small for her age.

"Class M1 is just a short walk from here... I think"

Several voices calling out quickly snapped her back to reality.

"Hey who's that over there?"

"Haven't seen her around before"

"She kinda cute... maybe one of us should go over and introduce our selves?"

The water dragon then turned towards the voices nearby where a large male fire dragon began to speak to her.

"Hey there... Where you heading off to then?"

The fire dragon has incredibly tall and muscular giving him a strong and intimidating presence, towering above the water dragon. Two large horns came out the sides of his head and a pointed forward while curving up slightly, his horns suddenly curving up at the end with the tips pointing skywards. He also had two spikes sticking out his cheeks. His horns, underbelly, eyes and wing membrane were orangey-gold in colour with his eyes being a more stronger shade of orange. He had a multitude of scars covering his body with more prominent ones on his muzzle and left flank.

There were three other dragons accompanying him. All of them were male.

Firstly there was a lightning dragon who was about a foot smaller than the fire dragon and had golden scales with a orangey-red coloured underbelly and wing membrane. His head was somewhat cone-shaped with it ending in a small frill. He had two jagged almost lightning bolt shaped horns thrusting forwards above eye level, ending a significant distance away from his head they were a lighter shade of yellow compared to his scales. His eyes were green and narrow, giving an unnerving look about him.

The second one was a huge earth dragon who towered above the others, the fire dragon barely came close to his size falling almost a foot shorter and was nowhere near his weight. His scales were faded dark brown in colour with orange eyes and a lighter brown underbelly and wing membrane. He had no horns, instead six blunt spikes rose out of a thick boney pate on his forehead and four more out of his cheeks that came forwards with the back ones being longer the the front. His frame was large and bulky with thick stubby wings a short frill protruding from his head and a large club at the end of his thick tail. His head was shorter and fatter than the average dragon giving him an ugly appearance.

The last one was smaller and younger than the others. He was a shadow dragon with slightly shiny dark grey scales and a slender figure. He had a medium sized shiny dark silver blade-like horn coming out of his smooth muzzle and many long sharp spines clustering out the back of his head with smaller ones forming a ridge down his back and tail, getting smaller as they go down. His wing membranes were a lighter shade of grey to his scales and his eyes and spines were pale green. He wore a white scarf around his neck and a large silver bracelet that covered most of his left forearm. The bracelet had raised vine like patterns going along it. He also had four small silver bangles on his right forearm and another hanging from his tail.

The water dragon looked towards them nervously.

The fire dragon spoke again.

"Sooooo... What's your name then?"

The water dragon muttered back in a quiet voice.

"Speak up would ya."

The water dragon spoke with a quiet voice "Aquila..." She was obviously scared.

"See that wasn't hard, was it?"

"Didn't know you went for the quiet type" The lightning dragon commented.

"Any types fair game. Especially with looks like these." and with that comment the fire dragon circled Aquila to check her out in more detail.

Aquila attempted to muster up her courage.

"Leave me alone... Please"

But her voice only came as a whisper.

The fire dragon then squared up to her face.

"Don't worry. You've got nothing to fear. We will take "good" care of you".

As the dragon spoke he noticed the others looking behind him and turned around.

He saw a tall wind dragon standing down the corridor not too far away looking at them with a curious frown on his face, like he was trying to make out what's going on.

"SHOVE OFF WOULD YA!" He barked towards the prying dragon.

The wind dragon backed off a bit before tilting his head to look around the angry flame dragon, where he saw the cowering water dragon. He could now clearly tell what was going on and started to walk towards them.

"What are you doing?"

"NONE OF YOUR DAMN BUSINESS!"

The wind dragon stop a short distance away while the other dragons behind the angered one began to emerge. At this point he realized what he was walking into, but it was too late to run.

"You've a lot of guts to walk over here like that. What do you want?"

"Erm..."

The lightning dragon cut in at this point.

"This one's new here... he obviously doesn't know what's going on."

He spoke in a much less aggressive tone that the fire dragon. Instead it was more calm and charismatic, but something about the way he spoke carried a somewhat "sinister" ring to it.

"Basically it goes like this. No-one messes with us, whatever we say goes, if anyone has a problem with that then Dunn here "rearranges" their face."

The lightning dragon then nods towards the behemoth of an earth dragon, who just growls deeply.

"Of course we're not unreasonable. If you want to do well here then you could always do us a few "favours"

"Favours?" Skye asked nervously.

"If you ever come across Ash or his friends, then please do your best to "inconvenience" him. You would be doing us all a favour."

"Why?"

"Apart from him being a holier-than-thou, goodie four paws, idealistic, irritating, idiotic, self righteous piece of trash. No reason."

"And speaking of trash."

* * *

Ash, Ivy, Haile and sparky were all wandering down one of the corridors talking about what's new and what they've been up to.

"Makes a damn change that I'm no longer in the same class as Zidane anymore. I can't stand the way that talks down to people all the time." Ash commented with relief.

"Not to mention the fact that he always knows what to say to push someone's buttons, the way hes always taunting and berating people And that no matter what you say to him, no matter how you insult him. He just shrugs it off and finds some way to infuriate you back." Ivy added.

"Really. I don't notice very often..." Ash commented.

"Thats because you're always busy in a shouting match with Torch...either that or a punch up."

Ash then sighs. "Yeah thats true... remember that fight we had last year, at the break up day party?" Ash then massaged the scar on his cheek.

"If you didn't stop me then I would have gone for him instead" Ivy stated.

"If I didn't then he could've hurt you."

Once hearing that comment Ivy started glaring at Ash.

"Can't have people messing with my girlfriend, can I?" Ash remarked with a grin.

"Carry on." Ivy muttered to herself.

Ash not hearing the warning, continued rambling.

"As much as I hate to admit it. He is one of the best fighters in the school..."

Ivy just continued glaring.

"No offence but you're not exactly one of the best fighters in the school. You are still in basic combat class after all."

Seconds later Ash was stumbling around whilst clutching his face. The last thing him seeing, being Ivy's hand coming towards him. The sound of it colliding echoed throughout the corridor.

At that point Haile just sighed and shook his head.

"What was that for?" Ash complained

Ivy just sighed in frustration before answering.

"You should know."

"I should know what?"

"Give up now before she slaps you again." Haile commented.

"Good idea."

After about a minute of silence Ash began speaking again.

"It's a shame that were not in the same class anymore Haile."

"Not really" Haile responded with a quick smirk.

"Heeeeey."

Ivy then started to giggle.

"Who's side are you on?" Ash commented playfully.

"His." Ivy remarked before pointing at Haile.

"How about you Sparky. You're on my side aren't you?" Ash inquired.

"YesnomaybeIdontknowaretheressidesnoonetoldmeabout sidearetheresideswhossideareyouonamIonyoursideshou ldIbeonyoursidewhossideisIvyonissheonyoursideIthou ghtshewasonyoursideifnotwhossideissheonissheonmysi dehowmanysidesaretherehasHailepickedasidewhichside isheonissheonIvysIthinkhesonIvysamIonIvysifnotcanI choosesidesifIcanwhossidedoIpickwhydoIhavetopickas idethendoIhavetoifIhavetothenI'llpickyoursideorIvy ssideIdon'tknowcanIbeonboth? can I? can I?"

After staring at the energetic dragon with utter bewilderment etched onto his face Ash then turned to Ivy.

"Remember to give Sparky his meds later. Speaking of which do you have any?"

"Of course." Ivy replied while gesturing to her satchel.

As the four rounded a corner, they spotted a familiar wind dragon talking with a group that they recognised more than they would've liked.

Skye turned around to see the two dragons he spoke with a while ago along with two others. One being the fire dragon that they probably asked him about earlier and a small lightning dragon

Ivy immediately ran forwards with the fire dragon following soon after. Haile just walked casually as the lightning dragon charged ahead quickly catching up with the other two.

Ivy looked at Skye then towards the smaller water dragon in the middle and finally at the other four.

"Skye?... Would someone like to explain what's going on?"

The large fire dragon then spoke in a menacing tone.

"You just love to stick your noses where they don't belong."

The other fire dragon then made it onto the scene. He was smaller and less intimidating compared to the larger one but he still looked pretty strong.

The larger one continued to speak.

"Oh it's you."

"My names Ash if you're too stuck up to remember."

"All I remember is wiping the floor with you last year pipsqueak."

"Really because I don't remember that happening."

"That's because I bashed your head in so hard I made you even more stupid."

"Shut it Torch!... and anyway out of the two of us you scored lower in the written test!."

"I didn't have time to study cause I was busy... Doing your mother!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!"

Whilst the two fire dragons shouted at each other the small water dragon suddenly attempted to run away, past the larger fire dragon, avoiding the earth and lightning dragon. She managed to get through before they could react and as she had freedom in sight the shadow dragon stepped in her path, blocking her exit.

Ivy tried to run after her but the lightning dragon quickly intercepted her.

"I'd figured Ash would try to pull off a move as mundane as that but you?"

"How disappointing..."

"Get out of the way Zidane"

"It's no surprise you're still only in the beginner combat classes"

"I said get out of the way!"

While that was going on Aquila was looking up at the shadow dragon blocking her path who was looking between her and the others that laid in wait behind.

"Urm... please could you let me pass?..." Aquila asked in a pleading tone.

The shadow dragon just closed his eyes and shook his head slowly.

After a while of staring blankly at her the shadow dragon eventually looked towards a clock on the wall and called over to the others.

"Lessons are starting soon."

Zidane then looked as well before returning his gaze on the opposing party and answering.

"Time grows short and we have better things to do that waste it on you imbeciles."

At this point the two fire dragons were at each others throats.

Torch hearing this then yelled out while he was walking away.

"Damn it. The last thing I want is the teacher throwing a stupid hissy fit at me when I'm a second late. Later suckers."

As he walked away he raised his tail upwards and to the side to create an S shape and flicked it towards Ash and his friends in the form of an offensive gesture. The rest of his gang followed in tow.

As Torch walked past Aquila he drew his hand across her left flank and smirked back at her perversely.

"I'll be seeing you later."

Torch, Zidane and Dunn then walked away the shadow dragon on the other hand remained immobile and looked at Aquila.

"Thank you." Aquila said softly.

The shadow dragon just shook his head again and ran off to catch up with the others.

"He always shows up when he's not wanted." Torch barked out whilst he was storming off, clearly irritated by the intrusion of the other dragons. "And who the hell is the other one?"

"I believe one of them referred to him as Skye" Zidane commented.

"He better not be planning on getting in my way."

"So... Brand, I assume you are thinking of a way to get your own back on Ash then?"

"Damn right."

"Took your time didn't you?" The fire dragon continued after noticing that the shadow dragon caught up.

"Sorry..."

"You know Seth, I wonder about you sometimes." Torch continued.

"Then again. You have your uses."

The shadow dragon then smiled weakly.

"Glad I could be of assistance Bran'..."

The fire dragon then glared at Seth, who quickly corrected himself.

"Torch... I meant Torch."

The fire dragon then muttered under his breath.

"Damn fricking parents and their stupid names."

After Torch and the rest of his gang faded into the distance around a corner Ash ran up to the timid water dragon to check if she was okay. Skye and Sparky quickly followed while Haile maintained a casual walk towards them.

"Are you okay? Did he do anything to you? If he did I swear I'll..." Ivy began.

"I'm okay" The smaller dragon replied.

"Thanks"

"You're welcome" Ash cut in whilst grinning.

"By the way I didn't catch your name..."

"Aquila"

"Aquila... Thats a pretty name..."

"Ahem"

Ash then quickly looked towards Ivy who was staring at him impatiently.

"As much as I "love" watching you hit on someone else for a change. Isn't she a little underaged?"

"I'm actually sixteen"

"Really? No offence but I thought you were younger..." Ivy commented in a puzzled tone.

"Don't worry... I get that a lot" Aquila replied.

"Classes are going to begin in a while" Haile pointed out in his usual calm and controlled manner.

"We should move shortly."

"Damn It!" Ash shouted before running off.

As he separated from the group Ash called back towards the others.

"Meet at the usual spot later. See ya"

Ivy, Sparky and Skye quickly followed in tow while Haile stayed behind.

"I didn't say immediately..." Haile muttered to himself before walking in the same direction as the others.

Haile then pondered silently to himself whilst walking to class.

"_There's still plenty of time... not to mention since its the first day back there is usually an extended period of time before classes begin, just to make sure no-one is too late_."

* * *

**Hey hey. Chapter number two done and dusted. ****I hope that you are finding the story interesting to some degree and I welcome any comments or conversation with open flippers (No seriously. Feel free to blitz me with banter.)**

_**"Am I the only person to ever call an air strike... During a game of chess?"**_

_"Random musings of the Walrus"_


	3. Chapter III

**Chapter III: Rage and Restraint**

Early in the morning, a while before a certain wind dragon was seen flying into Trysfall, another dragon was approaching the school entrance..

This one was an ice dragon that was covered in thick rough hewn slate grey scales that had a blueish tint to them with large armored plates growing over his shoulders and the outsides of his forearms, multiple scars covered his body although there weren't any of a remarkable size this still showed that he had seen his fair share of combat . His wing membrane was a lighter shade of greyish blue to his scales whilst his underbelly was noticeably darker. Large jagged spikes that were the same colour as his underbelly grew out of the tops of his shoulder plates with one coming out of each plate and more going down his back forming a ridge going all the way to the tip of his tail as well as smaller ones sticking out of the back of his elbows.

He had for four horns, two thick blade-like horns grew out the sides of his head, right at the top and curved forwards before curving around and backwards extending a few inches behind him. At the point where the horns started curving back the horns also spiked forwards slightly. Two much smaller blade-like horns also grew out of his cheeks and curved backwards without extending outwards much so they remained close to his head. His eyes were a very pale faded blue colour and his build was quite muscular and somewhat compact. His stance was also more low-slung than the average dragon giving him a slightly smaller appearance. The combination of his rough looking scales and the many spikes and scars that covered his body gave him a crude yet intimidating appearance.

Another ice dragon was sitting just outside of the school entrance reading a large book that was titled Elemental Lore Vol 3. When the rougher looking ice dragon walked by the other just glanced at him before returning to his book.

The dragon walked into the main lobby and towards the earth dragon receptionist sitting at a desk right at the end of the hall and took out a clawful of silver coins before dropping them onto the desk.

"If you want to enter you must first state your name, age and element." the receptionist muttered back while counting the coins and handing the dragon an emblem.

The dragon didn't respond. Instead just looked at the receptionist before walking off towards a door on the right.

"Do you even know where you're going? You're in class M1."

"..."

"Don't you want the four silvers you overpaid...?"

"..."

"More for me then."

The dragon the started wandering the school aimlessly while taking in details of his surroundings. The dragon soon found himself in a large hall filled with tables with piles of assorted pillows surrounding the tables. Along one of the walls there was multiple large rectangular windows with ledges beneath them. On one side there was a stack of trays and the aroma of food flowed out a kitchen found behind the windows.

At one of the larger tables that was located near the end wall found at the opposite end of the hall to the serving windows, there was two dragons, one was a lightning dragon and the other a large earth dragon also at one of the tables located in one of the corners of the room there was a female dragon reading a book of some sort. She had slightly dark, purple scales, green eyes and a magenta underbelly,claws and wing membrane. Darker purple hair that fell in front of her left eye and down the back of her head stopping halfway down her neck.

She had a smooth beak-like muzzle, a small slightly stocky build and no horns. She also had a strange black tattoo that curved around the left side of her left eye looked like curved fang shape daggering down from her left eye connected to many broken curved lines that snaked around her eye that became thinner as they spread out, reducing to points. Most people couldn't see the tattoo because her hair covered over most of it.

The large earth dragon was gorging himself on a huge pile of meat with no care for personal appearances while the lightning dragon was being more careful by spearing smaller pieces with his claws or cutting apart bigger pieces so that they would fit in his mouth.

As the ice dragon entered the hall another dragon suddenly shoved past him. The dragon was slightly smaller than him and looked like a female wind dragon. The dragon had light blueish grey scales, light blue eyes and two horns that came out the side of her head and curved backwards with the tips pointing down. The dragon looked annoyed as she stormed towards the earth and lightning dragons.

When the wind dragon got close to them she started shouting at them.

"HOW DARE YOU PICK ON SOMEONE YOUNGER THAN YOU!"

"MY LITTLE BROTHER IS AFRAID TO COME TO SCHOOL BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU!"

"WHY DON'T YOU PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE!"

The earth dragon started growling at the angry female while the lightning dragon looked unfazed and instead spoke back in a calm voice.

"Calm down... can't we all be civil about this."

**"**HOW ABOUT I BASH YOUR FREAKING SKULL IN INSTEAD!"

The earth dragon then roared before bashing his fist into the table before preparing to stand up but as he was getting up the lightning dragon just glared at him coldly, causing the dragon to sit back down again.

The lightning dragon then continued speaking.

"I see that temper runs in the family...Thats somewhat off-putting, considering you don't look half bad..."

"ARE YOU TRYING TO HIT ON ME YOU FREAK!?"

"No... just making an observation."

The dragon then stood up. standing above the enraged female.

"Besides my standards are far above that."

"FAR ABOVE WHAT?!."

"Glad you asked."

The lightning dragon then leaned forwards so he was looking her in the eyes before continuing.

"I'm far above dating wretches such as yourself."

The wind dragon responded by screaming at him in anger before swinging her claw as hard as she could, but the lightning dragon just catches are claw before grabbing her face and pushing her away causing her to stumble backwards.

"That really wasn't the best of ideas. You're clearly outnumbered and outmatched. Luckily I'm not as violent as a couple of friends of mine, who if you tried that on... well lets just say you would live to regret it."

The female just cursed under her breath while glaring at the other.

"Now if you could just apologise for trying to hit me, then you can be on your way."

After making that comment the female dragon leapt at him, knocking him to the ground and began to punch him in the face, not noticing that his horns were glowing until it was too late. As she brought her fist back for a second punch a stream of lightning shot from the other dragon's horns and electrocuted the female on top of him. He then rolled over and pinned her twitching form to the ground. The lightning dragon then lent forwards and delicately licked the left side of her neck before pulling back and looking her in the eyes. The look of humiliation crossed the females face, before she began to scowl at him while trying to cover up the fear welling up inside her.

The lightning dragon then spoke again but this time in a slightly more mocking tone.

"What happened to you bashing my skull in then?"

The female just remained silent and continued to glare at him.

"You shouldn't have walked in here prepared for a fight without knowing what you're up against. especially if what you're up against is me." The dragon continued in a more darker tone of voice.

The dragon then climbed off her and stepped back. As she got up the lightning dragon kept talking.

"Now begone... and remember. No one messes with me without living to regret it."

And with that last sentence he gestured at the earth dragon with a flick of his head towards one of the doorways before saying.

"Dunn, escort our "friend" here to the exit."

The huge earth dragon then nodded obediently before walking towards the female and growling deeply. The female took a single glance at the earth dragon who towered above her before flicking her middle claw at the lightning dragon and storming off. As they walked away the lightning dragon whispered across to his larger "friend".

"Make sure to rough her up a little on the way out."

The wind and earth dragons then made their way past the ice dragon, every time the female slowed down the larger dragon just headbutted her to speed her up again. The ice dragon just ignored them and continued on his way through the hall. As he got further into the hall the lightning dragon stepped into his path and started looking the dragon over with curiosity on his face.

"Who do we have here then?... you could've stepped in earlier on, but you didn't... obviously you're not as idiotic as the rest of these fools that I'm forced to tolerate."

"..."

"Are you ignoring me? or choosing not to respond? either way it's rather quite rude."

As the lightning dragon awaited a reply instead the ice dragon remained silent instead he just stared blankly with his cold eyes that seemed completely devoid of response or emotion. The lightning dragon then giving up on conversation decided to step aside to let the other dragon pass.

"I've already had my fill of pointless conversation for the moment. No point wasting my time anymore with you."

The ice dragon walked on towards the exit on the opposite end of the hall. Around the same time he got to the way out, the purple dragon that was sitting in the corner had finished eating and was making a move to the same door as him. She was slightly crouched down as she moved, probably trying to avoid attention. As they stopped near the door a short distance away from the larger ice dragon while looking towards the lightning dragon who had just sat back in his place again. The ice dragon just glanced at her before continuing on his way.

After spending a while exploring the school the ice dragon found his way back into the lobby where multiple notice boards on the wall drew his attention so he proceeded towards them and began to read them. They had mostly random bits of information on them ranging from class listings to upcoming events and a map of the school and where everything is. It also had a note mentioning that classes begin slightly later due to it being the first day back to make it easier to get used to as well as because the first few days serve to explain how everything works and give people a chance to get used to each other so they are normally shorter due to having less lessons.

The dragon decided that because lessons don't begin for a while that he could set out and explore the city for a while. As he exited the school he noticed that there was now two dragons outside reading. The ice dragon from before and now a green female who was sitting next to him. He simply ignored them and took flight towards the large garden near the school.

A short while after the ice dragon flew off towards the garden a large fire dragon landed near the school entrance and started to make his way past the two dragons who of course were Haile and Ivy, as he got closer he started to check out the female without even trying to be subtle which in turn annoyed her.

"What do you want Torch?" She asked in an annoyed tone.

"Just wanted to know if you're still dating that pain in the neck you seem to like so much." Torch replied in a vicious tone which only served to annoy her further.

"Shut it!"

"What's up with you then. Did he dump you or something?"

Ivy after hearing that comment immediately stood up and squared up into his face with her annoyance turning into anger.

"If you just came here to annoy me then please could you kindly GET LOST!"

The much larger fire dragon just laughed in her face before shoving her out the way which caused Ivy to stumble backwards. As Torch walked off he called back at her.

"If you ever get bored hanging around with that moron then give me a shout. I'll show you how a "real" dragon does things."

As he walked of Ivy muttered under her breath before sitting down to continue reading.

"At least he didn't set fire to one of my books like last time." Ivy said to herself while finding the last sentence she read before being interrupted.

"True" Haile added.

"You could have at least helped stand up for me Haile." Ivy commented.

"He probably would have then said something about us dating instead, and the last thing we need to give him is more ammo. Besides he isn't worth the effort." and with that final comment Haile made Ivy began to chuckle causing him to raise an eyeridge.

"Does that mean you think Ash is worth the effort then?"

"Almost." Haile responded with a quick smirk.

"Was that almost a smile I saw Haile?" Ivy commented mockingly.

"With a comment like that one would think you're planning on joining Smokey and his peon parade..."

After hearing that last comment by Haile, Ivy burst out laughing uncontrollably. Once she managed to calm herself down Ivy spoke back.

"Why would I want to join that loser? Isn't that your objective?"

"I'd rather babysit Ash for a day." Haile commented.

"Don't we do that already?" Ivy shot back.

"Good point."

* * *

Torch and his gang were walking down one of the many corridors of the building. After the recent clash with Ash's friends he was in a foul mood. Eventually they stopped outside their class where Torch read a sign on the door. "Class postponed by half an hour due to induction week."

"At least we're not late" Zidane thought to himself.

Unlike his calmer friend a scowl crossed Torch's already annoyed face.

"DAMN IT!" He yelled before turning towards a certain shadow dragon.

"YOU SAID CLASS WAS GOING TO BEGIN SHORTLY YOU...YOU..."

Torch then leapt forwards and grabbed Seth's throat before pinning him to the wall behind him.

"HOW DARE YOU HELP ASH WIN YOU TRAITOROUS BEHRACT"

Zidane then stepped forwards and put his paw on Torch's shoulder. The fire dragon then turned his glare onto the lightning dragon who began to speak.

"Calm down. You're choking the wrong person."

"How about you vent your anger in a more creative fashion?"

The fire dragon then loosened his grip before throwing the shadow dragon aside.

"THEN WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN MIND HUH!?"

Zidane then just rolled his eyes.

"Didn't I just say calm down?"

Torch then responded by growling loudly before speaking again in a somewhat slightly calmer tone.

"Do you have something in mind?"

"Of course I do. Just leave it to me and it all will work out in our favour."

"So what am I supposed to do then?"

As Torch made that comment he noticed that Zidane sigh before pulling something out of his satchel. It looked like a long sick with an oddly coloured end. He then struck the stick against the wall, causing the end to light up and release a strange aroma. Zidane then handed it over to Torch who sniffed at it for a moment before looking back at the lightning dragon, a puzzled look on his face.

"What the hell is this?"

"It's an incense stick." Zidane responded, now getting agitated.

"A what?"

"Just smoke it and shut it Branden! I'm getting a headache."

Torch responded by glaring before taking the incense stick off his friend and sticking it in his mouth.

"This ain't half bad." Torch commented while blowing smoke in Zidane's face, causing the lightning dragon to cough a few times.

"Keep it to yourself." Zidane replied in between coughs.

While this was going on Seth had finished massaging his neck and was now sitting down and thinking quietly to himself while Dunn on the other hand had just been taking snacks out of one of the huge bags hanging from him and was eating messily.

Zidane after clearing his throat, then began to speak again.

"Seth... shouldn't you be heading to your classroom about now."

"Oh, yeah."

As the shadow dragon stood up he heard Zidane continue.

"Send Rico and Riley my regards."

Seth nodded in response before walking off towards his classroom. A short distance down the corridor when Seth hit a T shaped corridor he looked towards the left when something suddenly met his gaze.

What he saw was without a doubt, one of the most attractive dragonesses that he'd ever seen in his life. She was long slender and curvy with larger than average wings and her scales were very dark violet with a strange iridescent effect on them causing her to change to slightly different shades of purple and violet at different angles, although this was hardly noticeable. she had vibrant magenta eyes. Her underbelly was purple coloured at the top and faded back to her original scale colour on its way down, completely reverting back to dark violet about three-quarters of the way down. her wing membranes were a lighter shade of violet to her scales while the edges around the wings and tendons had a strong magenta tint to them that quickly faded back to main wing colour.

She had two large, backwards pointing horns that came out the side of her head halfway above eye-level and curved up and out slightly while going backwards before curving down a short distance and ending a few inches behind her with the tips pointing outwards slightly. The ends of her horns, claws and tail blade were magenta in colour that quickly faded partway in back to a slightly lighter variation of the colour of her scales.

She also had long, wavy black hair that flowed over most her head and fell far behind her passing her shoulders by a short distance, most of it was brushed behind her horns but some was stylised to fall in front of them beside her eyes. She had a long sharp double sided harpoon shaped blade extending from her long whip-like tail and large silver bracelets half covering both her front forearms.

Once the female got closer she spoke.

"Excuse me but do you know where class U1 is by any chance?"

But instead of replying the male dragon just froze up with a nervous look on his face.

"Suit yourself."

The female then walked past him while looking through her bags for a map. Once she got the map out she checked it before heading off in the direction that Seth just came from. The shadow dragon then came back to his senses before walking away in the opposite direction.

"At least he didn't hit on me." The female thought to herself.

Torch having calmed down, was talking amongst his friends.

"Isn't that ice dragon who always hangs around Ash in our class now?" Zidane thought out loud.

"Yeah... and?" Torch replied.

"Just wondering."

"What you afraid of him or something?"

After hearing that remark Zidane just laughs before quickly responding.

"I'm actually looking forward to it. I can't wait to watch him crash and burn."

"I'm just hoping we have someone in our class this year who's actually "interesting" for a change." Torch commented.

"By interesting you mean floozies right?" Zidane replied.

"Yeah. Too right."

As the fire dragon made that comment he noticed that his friends attention was drawn elsewhere so he decided to look in the same direction and was left far from disappointed. What he saw was the same dragoness that Seth met earlier. Immediately Torch gestured Zidane to follow before striding confidently towards her.

"Well hello there. So what brings a pretty thing like you to a place like this? Name's Torch by the way." Torch flirted.

"Weeeeeeell. I was in the mood to have the worlds worst chat up line thrown at me by a couple of idiots who are obviously desperate to get laid so I decided, hey I'll just talk to that moron with that ridiculous grin over there and have my time wasted for a bit because I haven't got anything better to do, and trust me I've got much more better things to do than waste my time with a couple of rejects from the loser committee, who were thrown out for being too pathetic."

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM, IS IT YOUR TIME OF MONTH OR SOMETHING!?" Torch shouted back.

"Nope. This is me in a good mood, if you want to see me in a bad mood then keep talking Matchstick!."

"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!" The irritable fire dragon yelled before storming off, Zidane smiled to himself before following close behind while Dunn started following when they passed him.

Once the trio crossed a far enough distance the female made her way to the classroom door and read the notice, after finishing with reading it she sighed before sitting down and waiting for class to begin. As she sat down she noticed someone else's presence and looked in the opposite direction where the fire dragon went.

"I haven't seen someone get under Torch's scales quite like that for a long time. You must of really stung him hard." The tall ice dragon commented.

"Oh I was just getting warmed up." The female replied. Which made the ice dragon chuckle quietly. "Is he a friend of yours?" She continued.

"We go back a few years... Name's Haile by the way." The ice dragon then pulled a book out of his satchel and started reading.

"Valencia." The female said back.

At that point the rest of their class began to arrive.

* * *

**"Done, done, and on to the next one. Done I'm done and I'm on to the next."**

**Remember, feel free to point out any observations or opinions that you have. I enjoy talking to other people... :)**

**Questions, quotes, quips and queries are always welcome.**

_**"If you thought that my comment on the last chapter was strange... You should see how I play battleship."**_

_"Random musings of the Walrus"_


	4. Chapter IV

**Chapter IV: Aggression and Avoidance**

Many hours before Skye arrived into Tyrsfall it was raining heavily all throughout the night and was only starting to calm down just as the sun was only just beginning to rise, giving Aveius valley a completely different appearance.

A small battered old ox drawn cart was slowly making its way towards Tyrsfall from the east. The driver was a dragon wearing a stained, tattered and torn old robe with a hood concealing its face. As the cart drew closer to the gates in the distance a group of creatures jumped out of the shadows up ahead.

The creatures were small and humanoid in shape, standing at around three and a half to four feet in size they were just a bit over half the size of the dragon. They were a muddy forest green in colour with long pointy ears and two large fangs protruded from their mouths. They didn't wear much clothing with only loincloths and wielded large sticks and clubs as weapons. Their leader was much bigger, standing at around five and half feet tall with a more browner shade of skin.

The creatures were standing in the middle of the road whilst screaming and waving their weapons around in attempt to scare the dragon. Instead the dragon whipped the oxen with its tail, causing them to charge the group up ahead which caused them to either scatter or get trampled. After the dragon broke through it pulled the cart to a stop before dismounting and turning around to face its attackers.

The dragon could count one leader and five of the smaller one's remained. The rest were just a green stain amidst the mud and grass.

The robed dragon then charged the largest member of the group and leapt right at it, pushing it to the ground before sinking its fangs into the creature's neck and tearing its throat out causing green blood to spray all over the dragon's face and robes. The dragon then spun around and struck one of the creatures with its tail, causing a satisfying snapping sound to emit from its neck as the creature was sent flying.

While the creature was airborne the dragon quickly uppercutted another, driving its claws into the creature's throat and ripping its head upwards causing its neck to split open and flop backwards, hanging limply from its spine.

Another one of the creatures ran forwards in attempt to club the dragon's head but as soon as it got near, the dragon rammed its right claw into the attacker's chest, pulled its claw out and span around to hit the last one, twisting its claw so the sharp end hit the attacker which caused most of its insides to explode out the creatures chest and become distinctly more outside.

After the dragon quickly checked to see if any remained it climbed back onto the cart and flicked the oxen with its tail as the signal to continue along its path.

A few uneventful minutes passed before the dragon reached the cities gates where two guards stood.

The guards belonged to a race known as the Zargun which were large muscular humanoid lizards that when fully grown they stand around six and a half feet tall with heavily built bodies and their backs bent forwards permanently as part of their build. They were one of the many sentient races that populated the world along with the dragons.

They were wearing half-plate iron armor and open-faced helmets. They also had large iron falchions as weapons.

As the dragon passed through the guards gave it a few "odd" looks but they didn't say anything.

After spending a few minutes driving around the main roads in the Dust District the dragon eventually found a large building that towered above most of the others in the district. Above the door there were two signs, a larger one said The Rodents Respite with another smaller one next to it saying _Room discount available to Tyrsfall Academy students_. The dragon then tied the cart to a thick iron hoop built into the wall and went around to the side of the cart and opened a door on the side. The dragon then pulled a large heavy wooden chest that was reinforced with thick iron bands. Gripping the chest with one hand and a large sack that he also pulled out the cart with the other hand, he made his way inside the building with his tail wrapped around an even larger sack.

Inside the entrance lobby there was a male Aviean receptionist sitting at a desk at the end of the room with a staircase to the left that curved up and to the right and lead to a walkway that went to the right, going above the desk before disappearing up another staircase.

The Avieai are tall humanoid bird creatures that stand at almost seven feet tall on average with their wings built into their arms. Their wings are folded against the outside of their arms but even when they're fully unfurled they aren't large enough to allow the Avieai to fly properly only for very short periods of time so they tend to use their wings to glide, control falls or enhance their jumping capability. The secretary had grey feathers and green eyes. He was also wearing a open brown jacket and faded dark blue trousers.

Once the enshrouded dragon made its way to the desk it spoke.

"How much for room?." The traveler asked in its somewhat deep and slightly harsh accent while letting go of the wooden chest it was holding on to and taking a clawful of coins out of its robe.

"Three silvers a night" The receptionist replied

The traveler nodded before dropping fithteen silvers on the desk.

"Okay. You're in room number nine, here's the key." The receptionist said while handing over a key with a number "9" on it.

After picking up the key the traveler made his way up a flight of stairs located to the left of the desk, walked along the walkway and then up the stairs. Eventually he reached a door that was marked with the number "9" on it. He slotted the key into the door after putting down the smaller sack he was carrying and turned the key counter-clockwise before entering his room.

Inside His room there was an old mattress with a blanket over the top laying in the far left corner, a window on the far wall overlooking one of the main roads and a small wooden desk to the right.

The dragon dragged the large chest into the far right corner and positioned it so the chest was directly in the corner with the front facing towards the door and then dropped the sacks to the left of it. The dragon took his robe off and threw it across the room and underneath his robe the dragon was wearing bits and pieces of battered armor along his strong, slender and muscular frame.

His armor included a dented open faced iron helmet with holes in the sides for his jagged horns to come through, A battered old iron chestplate that covered his upper chest area and a iron armlet in equally bad condition covering his front left forearm with a leather shoulder guard on his left shoulder. On his right forearm there was a leather armguard instead of an iron one.

He also had a thick grey woollen sleeve stained with blood going all the way down his left arm. Thick bloodstained grey woollen bandages were wrapped all around his waist with none of his scales showing through and more were wrapped around his right arm but instead of covering his arm they only crossed over repeatedly on their way down to offer a small amount of protection.

More bandages were also crossed over his chest with more wrapped around it horizontally but they weren't currently visible.

Underneath his armor the dragons scales were some shade of greyish brown but it was hard to tell because of all the dirt, grime and bloodstains that coated his scales and armor. Most of his left horn was broken, instead it ended in a jagged stump and a large scar went across his left eye that was impossible to miss, even under all the filth that covered him. Along with the one on his eye countless other scars covered his body, no matter where you looked all you could see was scars, and thats even when most of them was covered with dirt and dried blood.

His eyes were silver and his horns, tail blade, underbelly and wing membranes were a darker shade of grey than his scales. His tail blade was long and jagged from all small pieces of it missing along the edges. His other features included a long muzzle and head shape with a small horn on his nose and his chin stabbing down and curving up as it went in to form a somewhat "axe" shaped head and his wings were riddled with many holes. He had a key hanging from neck on a chain and he also was wearing a fairly large steel pendant that was about a centimetre thick. The pendant was hanging from a tough steel chain and was circular in shape, it had no decorations on it instead all it had was a smooth face smeared with dirt.

After he threw his robe away the dragon took his key off from around his neck and used it to unlock the chest before taking his armor off and storing them in the chest he then locked the chest and put the key back around his neck. Then after stretching his muscles to quickly get used to the weight difference of no longer wearing his armor the dragon grabbed the larger bag with his tail and left the room, locking it behind him.

Leaving the building behind him, the dragon the started roaming the streets in search of something. As the dragon wandered the many roads he kept an eye on everyone around him to make sure no one tries to rob him. After a few minutes he eventually found a small market located outside a tavern with a blacksmith nearby that makes supplies for some of the stalls.

The bloodied dragon then made his way to a stall that has a sign above it saying General Goods and dropped the large sack he was carrying onto the counter. The Aviean stall owner then poured out the contents to what was inside. Within the sack was mostly random junk, probably found on the road along with assorted teeth, bones, horns, pelts and other parts of various different creatures. Also among the many items the traveler had "collected" the were also small gems and pieces of ore. After doing a few quick calculations the stall owner handed over a small bag stuffed with coins. After picking up the bag of coins the traveler then began to speak.

"I've got two oxen and a cart that I don't need anymore. Its tied up outside the Rodents Respite if you're buying."

"Sure I probably could sell it on or something. I'll check it out later."

The traveler then walked away while sticking the bag into one of his satchel compartments and continued to roam the streets. A few minutes of walking later he began to notice that someone was following him and stopped to check who it was in more detail. When he turned around the traveler came face to face with three heavily built Zargun all wielding large clubs. One of them began to speak once he saw them.

"Quite a lot of money you packing there... mind sharing some?" The Zargun then gestured towards his club.

Without any warning the battle hardened dragon suddenly threw himself at the Zargun in the middle ramming his unbroken horn into the overgrown lizards chest then after pulling his horn out the dragon jumped into the air while swinging his claw upwards and cleaved the thugs head open.

Whilst he was airborne the battle hardened dragon spun around and almost completely removed the head of his opponent to the right before swinging downwards while descending and splitting the Zargun's chest open.

The remaining would-be robber then clubbed the dragon's flank but only succeeded at further enraging the traveler. After receiving the blow to his side the dragon span around while striking the remaining attacker with the full weight of his body driving behind his fist, hurling the Zargun into the wall behind him.

As the giant lizard hit the wall the traveler leapt forwards and began raining punches down upon the pinned thief. Once he finally finished all that remained of his opponents face was a stain on the wall.

The freshly bloodied dragon then continued along his path without taking a second glance at what remained of his opponents. After a few more minutes of exploring the city the traveler decided to return home. On the way back he stopped outside a well that was located near the hotel and filled a large leather canister which he was carrying in his satchel with water. Once he was back in his room the dragon began removing his bandages while checking the many dried up wounds found beneath them.

Once he finished removing his bandages the dragon gave himself a quick wash over with the water from the canister which removed a thin layer of dirt this made his scales now show up as a dirty grey colour then he used some of the remaining water to crudely wash the bandages out before sticking them in a heap on top of the chest in the corner of the room. After he placed the bandages on the chest the traveler started stretching his no longer bandage restricted muscles and shook of the remaining water on him that didn't fall off.

Then he heard a knock on his door along with a voice.

"Some trader outside wants to speak with you."

The dragon unlocked the door and walked downstairs where he was greeted by the shopkeeper from before.

"Okay I've checked out your cart and oxen. They are in pretty good condition so I'll buy them off you for, say... ninety silvers?" The shopkeeper offered.

"One hundred and thirty five silvers." The battle worn dragon responded.

"Thats way too steep... I'll increase my offer to One hundred."

"One hundred and twenty five." The traveler countered with a stronger tone to his voice.

"One hundred and twenty five? Are you trying to rob me?" The shopkeeper complained.

"If I wanted to rob you then you'd already be dead." The dragon replied with an aggressive tone.

The shopkeeper then gulped from nervousness because he could clearly see that the dragon wasn't to be messed with, he quickly counted out eighty five silver coins before dropping them into the dragons paw. After the dragon stuck the money into his pouch he walked outside, the stall owner quickly following him.

Once they were outside the dragon then grabbed the inch and a half thick rope with his teeth and after a few seconds of tearing at it, the rope finally snapped it in half. This slightly unnerved the shop keeper but he decided to say nothing before leading the cart away. The dragon then returned to his room and collapsed onto the mattress on the floor and finally got the sleep he was deprived of for days.

* * *

Whilst the traveler slept another dragon had entered the city via the south gate. The dragon was getting more than its fair share of odd looks this was mainly because it was covered in layers upon layers of mud and dirt that had dried out ages ago and practically fused to its scales. The layer of mud was further secured by thousands of rocks buried amongst the dirt as well as many thick vines that were tied around it intertwined with its limbs and the thick mud the surrounded it. The only details people could make out was its light orange eyes and two forwards pointing horns. Few people could actually tell if it was a dragon or not.

The dragon roamed the streets of the Dust District while trying its best not to draw attention. Which was impossible considering how easily it stood out amongst the crowd. It wasn't long before the dragon drew unwanted attention as a group of Zargun approached him. There were two of them, both of which were drunk judging from the way they held themselves.

"What you lookin at... freak?" One of them barked aggressively.

The dragon who they were talking to decided to keep walking instead of responding but the two drunkards blocked his path which caused the unorthodox looking dragon to sigh.

"Please could you kindly move." The mud covered dragon responded in a voice that conflicted with his appearance. Rather than sounding rough or harsh like his appearance suggested instead his voice sounded slightly low pitched but at the same time it was somewhat refined and charismatic.

"And what if we don't?" The second one replied.

"What would you be achieving if you didn't move?"

Both of the drunken Zargun froze up with a vacant look on their faces after hearing that question.

"If you're not achieving anything from this then why continue?"

While the drunkards were trying to figure out a response the dragon continued past them but as he was walking around them one of the Zargun decided to kick him, causing the dragon to stumble slightly.

"Where do you think ya going? We're not done with ya yet." The second one yelled causing the dragon to sigh before speaking back in a more official tone.

"As an envoy from Gran Terraria I'm under direct instruction from emperor Rengaius to deliver an important message and I have permission to hand out death sentences upon any who might sabotage the mission."

After hearing that the dragon that they just attacked is working directly for the emperor of the main faction of earth dragons and is capable of having them killed the two drunken thugs ran away without a moments hesitation.

As they disappeared into the distance the dragon chuckled to himself.

"Some people believe anything you tell them if you sound convincing enough." And with that comment the dragon continued onwards along his path.

Once he made his way through the Dust District the dragon found himself in the Market District and started looking around for a place to stay. After a while of searching he found a large building titled Tyrsrest and decided to enter. Inside the hotel it was well decorated with with pictures hanging from the walls and potted plants in the corners. At the end of the room a large fire dragon sat at a counter with a large book in front of him. On the left a right sides of the room there were two staircases that curved inwards leading to a balcony overlooking the foyer. leading from the balcony two more staircases extended to the left and right, both leading to doors in the left and right far corners of the room.

The fire dragon was red with green eyes and an orange underbelly, horns and wing membrane. He had two large crescent shaped blade like horns that came out the top of his head at a slightly outwards pointing angle and curved backwards with the tips pointing downwards. He also had a small orange goatee.

Once the dragon arrived at the counter the receptionist then proceeded to speak.

"If you're here for a room then its five silvers a night or if you're looking for a higher quality room then we offer luxury bedrooms for eight silvers a night. There is also a discount for students from Tyrsfall academy."

The vine tangled dragon once hearing the information then stuck his hand in a section of his chest where multiple vines were tied around a bag that was half submerged in the rock shell that surrounded him. From within the bag he withdrew a handful of silver coins and counted out five before putting the rest back.

"Thank you. Here is the key to room twenty seven. Its located on the second floor and has access to the basics. No offence but it would be a good idea to use the shower provided with your room."

The filthy dragon then took his leave up one of the stairways after receiving his key

After a while of searching the dirt encrusted dragon eventually found his room and entered after unlocking the door. The room contained a clean bed with multiple blankets, a wardrobe, a desk with a pot filled with quills on top, a potted plant in the corner, a large counter with multiple cupboards built into it and a doorway leading into a smaller separate room. This room contained a toilet, a sink and a shower the main room had a navy blue carpet with the the bottom half of the wallpaper being faded aqua blue with dark turquoise stripes and the top half being a creamy yellow colour. The bathroom had polished wooden tiles covering the floor and walls to waterproof it.

After inspecting his room the dragon made his way into the shower and attempted to clean the filth covering his body off. As the hot water washed over his entire body bits of dirt started coming loose but most of it was held on strongly by the rocks and vines reinforcing it. After half an hour a small amount had come off but most of it remained even after he did his best to scrub it off although he could do it effectively because the vines that wrapped around him heavily restricted his movements,

The dragon then turned off the shower and sighed in defeat before shaking himself partially dry before waiting for the rest of the mud to dry off. After he finished drying off the dragon then looked at all the mud that stained the walls and floor.

"Well the cleaners aren't gonna be happy about this." He thought to himself before returning to the bedroom and going to sleep.

* * *

About an hour after the robed traveler entered Tyrsfall, another carriage was nearing the gates as the sun has just finished rising. The carriage was being driven by a Zargun wearing an old brown leather jacket, thick beige canvas trousers, old leather boots and a large circular straw hat. As the carriage passed through the gates the driver then called to the back of the cart.

"Okay we're there now. Its time to wake up."

The cart was mostly filled with food and resources like wooden planks and nails but hidden amongst the supplies there was a sleeping dragoness. After hearing the driver calling out she woke up and looked through a small window at the front where she could see the driver looking back at her and she could also see the city in the background behind him. She stood up and shook herself awake before climbing out the cart.

The dragon had pale light blue scales and a very pale pink underbelly, horns and wing membrane. Her eyes were oddly coloured, her left eye was the same shade of pale pink as her underbelly only slightly more vibrant while her right eye was pale violet instead. She had two small horns that came out the side of her head that pointed down and forwards. She also had short very pale pink hair and strange vine like patterns covering almost her entire body but they were almost impossible to see because there was only a small difference between the colour of the patterns and the main colour of her scales, the patterns being a slight shade of pink. She had an exhausted look on her face that clearly showed that she hasn't slept properly for a long time. This time being no exception.

She emerged from the cart squinting due to the sun streaming into her eyes and had to look away into the shade while her eyes adjusted to the sudden outburst of light. Once she finished waking up the female then began to speak to the driver.

"Thank you for your help. Are you sure that you don't want me to pay you?"

"Naah its all good. Oh ya probably gonna need a place teh stay. Try a visit to the Trysrest hotel, I've heard its good value for money."

"Okay, thanks again."

" the way ya haven't told me yer name if ya don't mind me askin?"

"Aeria."

"Okay. Laters Aeria. Oh and good luck." The driver replied with a tip of his hat before heading off into the city.

After the carriage had left the female dragon stretched herself to shake off her drowsiness before entering the depths of the city. She quickly made her way through the streets of the Dust District, not waiting around just in case she found unwanted attention. Once Aeria found her way into the Market District she then approached one of the patrolling Aviean guards nearby.

"Excuse me but, do you know where the school is? I'm kinda new here." Aeria asked.

"Isn't it a little early to be heading to school." The guard responded.

"I know, I was just going to enroll now just in case I forget later."

"Makes sense. Its hard to spot it from here but if you head that way then you'll probably find it." The guard instructed while pointing into the distance. "But considering your new in town you'll probably have more use for this than me." The guard said while withdrawing a map from his backpack before handing it over to the dragon.

"Thank you." Aeria replied before walking away a short distance and sitting down in a corner. She then began to study the map for a short while. Once she found all the information she needed Aeria then made her way to Tyrsfall academy.

Although there was no-one around Aeria could see that the school was open. She made her way into the building and found herself in an entrance lobby where an irritable looking earth dragon sat at a desk. After she finished submitting a small amount of information about herself and paying the admission fee Aeria received a small metal emblem that had a large "T" in the middle with a snake-like dragon coiled around it. A wreath also decorated the edge of the emblem.

"You're in class M2. Now come back later when lessons actually begin. Not two hours early." Said the annoyed receptionist towards the early arriving female.

After leaving the school Aeria then surveyed the area around her and noticed that there was a large park nearby and decided to go explore it for a while.

After spending a few minutes of walking one of the many footpaths that weaved through one of the many small forests that dotted the landscape she found her way into a clearing where spotted a large tree on a hill that sat a short distance away from where she stood. Aeria walked towards the tree and once she found herself under the tree she sat down, closed her eyes and entered deep into thought, after a few minutes of thinking she began to cry softly.

Once she finished crying until the tears stopped flowing Aeria opened her eyes and looked at the world around her, flinching at the sudden outburst of tear distorted sunlight streaming into reddened eyes. She then closed her eyes again and curled up, resting her tearstained face upon her tail before letting tiredness take its hold, causing her to drift off to sleep.

* * *

**Hey, these chapters just keep getting longer and longer...**

**Fun fact, originally these first four chapters were all together as one... but it was too chaotic to read so I hammered it apart (Literally)  
**

**Okay now that a large portion of the basic background stories have been covered. I can now do some story progression (YAY!)**

_**"There is a point in history where mankind wasn't aware that you could milk cows to obtain an edible fluid... It makes you wonder about the intentions of whoever discovered that you can..."**_

_"Random musings of the Walrus"_


	5. Chapter V

**Chapter V: Conflict and Coexistence**

Early in the morning a few minutes after a certain carriage was seen driving into Tyrsfall. The sun had risen above the mountain range overlooking the valley and all seemed normal. Until...

A short distance away from the city a burning object fell from the sky and crashed into the valley below, leaving a crater in its wake. moments after the impact occurred from within the crater a strange creature that was wreathed in flame began to emerge.

The creature took the form of a giant female bird with glowing orangy-red feathers making up most of her body and golden feathers covering her chest along with more golden feathers extending out of the back of her head which formed a mane that went down to her shoulders while more golden feathers lined the bottom of her wings. She also had a very slightly hooked, shiny golden beak with small teeth inside it, two glowing green eyes and a strange "tail" that was made up of a fan of large golden feathers.

As the creature that emerged was know as a phoenix, her flames receded and the glow of her feathers died down until it was unnoticeable although the feathers were still glowing this was only slight compared to a few moments ago. Once the phoenix had fully withdrawn from the crater she began to stretch the tension out of her muscles before calling out to someone.

"WOOOHOOOO DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT?!"

As she spoke another creature landed nearby. This one was known as a griffin. It had the head, wings and front legs of an eagle and the body, hind legs and tail of a lion. The griffon was male and had dark brown feathers on the eagle parts of his body and the lion parts of his body had a standard brown coat which was lighter than his feathers, his feathers and coat also looked well kempt and cared for.

The griffin had long strands of hair growing out the back of his head that was twisted together to form a long rat tail style hair cut, a small yellow ribbon that was tied in the shape of a bow could also be found near the end that helped keep his hairstyle in place. The griffin had amber coloured eyes and he sometimes wore a small pair of rimless glasses on his beak but they were currently tucked in one of the many pockets of his satchel which he never wears while flying because if he did they would simply just fall off.

"I really wish that you didn't endanger yourself like that sometimes Ember."

"Don't worry 'bout it. Phoenixes can't die anyway." She replied with a grin.

"We both know that isn't true. Although you have a naturally high regenerative rate and can use a large burst of reserved energy to save yourself from a fatal injury, this doesn't make you invincible." The griffin lectured.

"Details, details. You really should learn to lighten up Samson."

The griffin simply responded with a sigh.

"Anyways." Ember continued. "Do ya know where Eddie ran off to?"

"No idea. Maybe you should've waited for him to catch up when I mentioned it a while ago instead of flying off ahead."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot 'bout that."

This comment caused Samson to let out another sigh.

"How about we wait until Eddie catches up then we can travel to Tyrsfall as a group? Also please could you stop flying ahead every time you get bored."

"Fine." The phoenix said with annoyance.

After a few minutes of silence had passed, Ember spoke up again.

"What's taking him so long? Why do we have to go to Tyrsfall anyway?" She complained loudly with frustration.

"We're going to Tyrsfall because the academy there is one of the most famous in the realm and thats where is our best chance to learn more about the dragons, also because it offers a better education than most other schools in the realm as well as an opportunity to gain entry into the Skyreach academy."

"I already know that, you've already told me that like a million times already."

"Erm... then, why did you ask?" Samson replied nervously.

"I meant..."

"WOULD YOU TWO STOP BICKERING!" A third voice suddenly shouted.

Both the phoenix and the griffin turned towards where the voice was coming from. It originated from a giant three headed snake creature that was known as a hydra. It was covered in dark forest green scales with a dark inky brown underbelly. The hydra's middle head was slightly larger than the other two and it had yellow eyes. Once the hydra got close enough the middle head began to speak.

"We thought we lost you guys for a second."

"No thanks to Ember." His left head added.

"Why do you always fly ahead?" The right head whined.

The hydra was the third person they were waiting for and went by the name of Eddie. The strange thing about him and all other hydras is that all of their heads have a mind of their own and each one may even have a different personality. Although the middle head can control the others this requires a lot of focus and so most cannot do this for more than a short period of time. To avoid confusion because all of his heads have different personalities, each of his heads go by a slightly different name. His main head goes by Eddie, his left head is referred to as Edd and his right head is known as Eidee.

"Okay, okay I'm sorry." Ember sulked.

"Somehow we don't believe you." Edd commented.

"Couldn't you have at least slowed down?" Eidee complained.

"Couldn't you have at least sped up?" Ember shot back.

"May I interject?" Samson cut in.

"What is it now?" Ember moaned.

"Shouldn't we be making our way to Tyrsfall. Rather than argue amongst one another?"

"He has a point." Eddie agreed.

"Can't we take a break first?" Eidee asked hopefully.

"You did just drag us several miles before we could get some proper sleep." Edd added.

"Yeah I guess we are a little tired from catching up to both of you." Eddie concluded.

"I could use a rest too. You're quite difficult to keep up with Ember." Samson agreed while sitting down.

"Fine. We can take a break now and continue once you lot have had your little nap." Ember patronised.

"Aren't you at least a little tired as well?" Samson asked out of curiosity.

"Are wolves, sprites and griffins flame resistant?" Ember replied mischievously.

"Thats one way to put it." Eddie mused, recalling a previous memory.

"Errr...uhm." Samson was at a loss for words.

"How about this. You two can go to sleep and I'll keep watch." Ember concluded.

"Are you sure you're not just going to fly off as soon as we go to sleep?" Eddie questioned.

"Don't worry. I won't..." The phoenix replied. "_Much_."

And with that comment both Eddie and Samson curled up and began to drift off to sleep. Once all was calm Ember watched the griffin and hydra while they were asleep for a few minutes before turning her gaze towards the horizon. As her friends slept the phoenix silently pondered to herself.

_"Now what to do, what to do... maybe I could take a quick flight to see if anything interesting is going on nearby. If I'm back before they wake up they'd never notice that I'm missing."_

The phoenix then took one last look at her sleeping friends before taking off and exploring without sitting around to give it a second thought.

* * *

Ash, Ivy and Skye were waiting outside their classroom staring at a clock on the wall, Sparky had just left moments ago, this was because he was much younger than the other dragons which meant he was in a different class to Ash and the rest of his friends. A note was stuck on the door to their classroom stating that classes begin late, much to Ash's annoyance.

"I thought Haile said that classes were about to begin?" Ash complained.

"Well he did say shortly, not immediately. Haile's always been literal with his use of words. Maybe you should try paying a bit more attention?" Ivy commented.

This comment caused Ash to groan.

"Erm... who were those four?" Skye asked out of curiosity.

"What do ya mean by who were those four?" Ash replied.

"Oh I forgot to mention. Ash, this is Skye." Ivy said while introducing the two.

"Who?" Ash said back bluntly.

"He's new here" Ivy continued.

"I met him outside."

"Oooo kay?" Ash replied, still confused with the spontaneous introduction and explanation.

"Erm... hi?" Skye greeted while offering a handshake.

Ash blinked a few times, still slightly confused towards what was going on before firmly shaking the wind dragons paw.

Once the two dragons finished greeting each other, both of them fell silent, unsure what to say next. After a few moments of silence, Skye proceeded to speak.

"Who were those four I saw earlier anyway?"

"A couple of bullies that think they're better than everyone else." Ivy replied. "You probably should stay away from them."

"And if they cause you any problems just tell us." Ash added.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Skye replied with mixed feelings. On one hand he didn't enjoy the fact that he felt a little weak from Ash's "reassurance" but on the other hand he was relieved that someone was looking out for him.

As they finished speaking the three dragons noticed the arrival of two familiar faces. The first being Aquila the female water dragon that they "saved" and the second one being Seth who was one of the dragons that was with Torch during the confrontation moments ago.

When Aquila saw Ash, Ivy and Skye she gave them a small nod while closing her eyes to signify that she recognised them before sitting down a short distance away from them. Seth stopped near them and began looking between the four dragons slowly, his claws digging slightly into the floor beneath him.

Aquila seemed to stare at the shadow dragon with a mixture of curiosity and puzzlement while Ash and Ivy just frowned at him. Ash had a slight look of annoyance on his face while Ivy and Skye just looked unsure.

After a few moments of uneasy tension the shadow dragon muttered something inaudible to himself before sitting down a significant distance away from them. Ash then turned towards the water dragon in the opposing direction.

"Hey, fancy us being in the same class as each other."

The water dragon didn't say anything back, instead she just smiled weakly.

"Sooooo, you busy later on?" Ash flirted.

This comment caused a expression of nervousness to cross over Aquila's face, and one of annoyance to emerge onto Ivy's.

"Just to ask. Are you okay with Ash flirting with you?" Ivy asked Aquila, noticing that the water dragon didn't seem to enjoy Ash's forwardness.

Aquila shook her head in response to Ivy's question.

"Are you sure?" Ash questioned.

"Ash... I will slap you." Ivy commented flatly.

Ash pouted in response but he also stopped questioning the water dragon, much to both Aquila and Ivy's relief.

"Sorry to cut in." Skye began. "But out of curiosity are you both... well... you know... like... dating?"

After hearing this comment Ivy began to blush slightly from embarrassment but her expression quickly changed to a frown. Ash on the other hand was grinning from horn to horn.

Just as Ash was about to make a comment, Ivy interrupted him.

"No we are not dating, nor have we ever dated. If someone tells you otherwise then just ignore them. Especially if that person is Ash, Torch, Zidane or anyone else for that matter."

"Sorry if I hit a sore point. I was just curious." Skye said back with slight embarrassment upon on his face.

"Don't worry. you didn't." Ivy replied.

A few minutes of silence later another dragon made its appearance, one that none of the others had seen before.

The new face was a male wind dragon of a tall and slender build who stood taller than all the other dragons in the corridor except Ash, although the dragon was almost as tall as Ash which was somewhat intimidating he was also significantly less muscular. The wind dragon had pale light blue scales that were the norm for his element although his scales appeared to have been cleaned thoroughly and even polished which caused his scales to shine brightly from the light of candles aligning the corridor.

He also had two light silvery blue horns that curved directly behind him with the ends curling up slightly, originating from a short distance behind his light blue eyes. Like his horns, the male dragon's underbelly, wing membrane, claws and long arrow shaped tail blade were all silvery blue in colour.

The dragon was wearing multiple blue tinted silver rings on his horns and tail with four on each horn and twelve on his tail, and a large silver armlet that almost covered the lower part of his left forearm with an embossed regal looking pattern covering it.

The tall wind dragon walked confidently towards the other dragons, stopped a few feet away where he looked between them with his eyes stopping upon Ivy whom he began checking out in detail, much to her annoyance.

Before Ivy could do anything though Ash had already stepped forwards and began to speak.

"Hey there newbie. The name's Ash, pleased to meet ya." He said while extending his paw to greet the new arrival but instead of accepting his handshake the wind dragon just shot him a dirty look before replying.

"I didn't ask you for your name, although I would like to get to know the fine lady over there." The wind dragon spoke with a refined and gentlemanly accent and was obviously referring to Ivy, who looked far from impressed.

"Morning m'lady. I don't believe we have met. The name's Aceleis although most people call me Ace. I'm sure you'll grow to find my company rather enjoyable." The wind dragon said while walking towards Ivy, stopping just inches in front of her.

"Dream on jerkoff." Ivy replied in an annoyed tone.

The wind dragon took a few steps backwards before leaning forwards and glaring at the smaller female before speaking again but with a slightly more bitter tone of voice.

"Oh you have a bit of a tongue on you, haven't you?"

"I'm not too shabby with my fists either." Ivy shot back.

"Care to demonstrate?"

At this point Ash cut in.

"Could you both please stop arguing."

"Then why don't you keep your friend under control then?" The wind dragon replied smoothly.

As the wind dragon known as Aceleis spoke, feminine giggling could be heard in the background followed by a young energetic voice calling out to them while attempting to sound somewhat provocative, but in a mocking sort of way.

"Ooh what do we have going on over here then?"

After the voice called out another voice began to speak only this one was quieter, calmer and slightly deeper.

"You know, if you kept quiet then we might've found out without alarming them... But when have I ever been right?"

Typically, after the voices began to speak the other dragons stopped what they were doing and turned around towards the intruders, who in this case were two dragonesses. One was a lightning dragoness while the other was a noticeably taller ice dragoness.

The lightning dragoness was of average size with a slightly stocky build and a partly beak-like muzzle. She had blue eyes that seemed to be brimming with energy and two ram-like horns sticking out the sides of her head. Her scales were bright yellow and her horns, claws and underbelly were orangey-red in colour while her wing membranes were a very slightly lighter shade of yellow to her scales. A small feature that she had was that the tips of her wings, tail and muzzle had a slight tint of cobalt blue to them. She was also wearing a small silver pendant with an opal set in the middle.

The ice dragoness was older and taller than the lightning dragoness, she also had a slimmer figure and was considered to be rather attractive. Her scales were artic blue in colour and she had four horns. Two of her horns came out the sides of her head above and behind her deep blue eyes, they jutted forwards slightly before thrusting backwards and they stopped near the back of her head but not quite extending behind her. The ice dragoness's other two horns were less of horns and more of smallish lumps growing out the top of her head due to them not being fully grown yet.

She also had three small crest-like frills protruding from near the back of her head, the middle one being longer with two smaller ones growing out the sides of her head and pointing almost directly behind her. In between the three frills at the back of her head she had short silver hair that came down to her shoulders. The female's underbelly, horns, claws, wing membranes and long sharp kite-like tail blade were all a lighter shade of blue, almost white in colour. She also had a smallish scar on her left cheek but this was barely noticeable because she was using makeup to hide it.

Although both of the dragonesses were fairly attractive, the ice dragoness was drawing the majority of the other dragons attention. Once the ice dragoness had finished her last sentence, Aceleis began his approach towards her.

"Well good morning m'lady the name's Aceleis but most people call me Ace, Pleased to make your acquaintance." The wind dragon flirted in his original charming accent, not noticing Ivy rolling her eyes in the background.

Before the ice dragoness could respond the lightning dragoness cutted in.

"What d'ya mean my lady!? there's two of us y'know."

"Pardon my rudeness m'lady. I hope I haven't offended you." Aceleis said with a small bow, causing the female lightning dragon to giggle.

"Creep." Ivy muttered under her breath. Aceleis, not hearing Ivy's comment, carried on talking to the two new arrivals.

"May I have the honour of knowing your names?"

"The names Starka and this is my best friend Shiva." The lightning dragon replied with a grin.

Aceleis then turned to talk to the ice dragon but to his disappointment she had left the conversation and was sitting down a short distance away, clearly uninterested towards what was going on. Once seeing that her friend had left, Starka then took her leave before walking towards Shiva and sitting down next to her. Once starka had finished sitting down she broke into conversation. Aceleis, realising that he was getting nowhere then turned around to came face to face with a very annoyed Ivy.

"Now what?" The wind dragon said, his voice turning back to its other, more bitter tone.

"For your information, if I wasn't in control then I would've bashed your head in by now." Ivy commented threateningly, but much to her annoyance instead of backing off Aceleis began to chuckle. Once he had finished chuckling Ace then began to speak again.

"Are you threatening me? Oh that's rich." and with that he began to chuckle again.

Not wanting to put up with his insults any longer, Ivy began to lunge forwards to attack but as she did Ash quickly leapt forwards to intercept her by putting his right paw on her left shoulder and holding her back, much to her annoyance. Once Ash began to hold her back Ivy turned towards him and glared at Ash before turning her glare upon Aceleis who was watching both of them with amusement clear upon his face.

"Let me go!" Ivy growled back at Ash who rather than letting go, instead he tightened his grip.

"Not until you've calmed down." Ash replied while struggling to keep his friend back who was fighting against his restraint.

Once Ivy had finished calming down after struggling for a short time, Ash then finally let go of her and much to his surprise she didn't try to attack the wind dragon again. Instead Ivy turned around and walked away although she was mostly calm, everyone could tell from her expression that she was far from being in a good mood.

After the recent series of events everyone was mostly silent. The only sounds that could be heard was the casual exchanges between Shiva and Starka also if you listened closely then you could also hear Seth muttering to himself for a brief moment. Once a few more minutes had passed a large female water dragon could be seen walking towards them with a cheerful expression on her face.

The water dragon was much taller than the other dragons due to her being an adult. She was one of the newer teachers that was yet to introduce herself to the class and was also one of the youngest members of staff in the building. She had a long and slender build but wasn't very tall compared to the other adults.

She had deep ocean blue scales and a yellow underbelly, tail blade and wing membrane as well as two small frills sticking out the sides of her head that were the same colour as her underbelly that she could also open and close at will. She also had deep blue eyes and long silver hair that was tied together near the bottom with a small blue ribbon. In one of her hands she was holding a bronze key ring with a few keys hanging from it and in her other hand she had a piece of paper.

Once the older water dragon got within a close enough distance she stopped for a brief moment to look through the younger dragons before resuming her course towards the door near them and unlocking it. Once the door was unlocked she stepped aside and held the door open with her tail to let the younger dragons through while still smiling at them cheerfully.

The classroom had pale lime green walls while the floor was covered with terracotta tiles. Three large windows the covered most of the wall opposing the door, a large blackboard behind a heavy wooden desk at the front of the classroom and twenty five wooden tables that had a small pile of cushions in front of each of them.

Once they were inside classroom then everyone chose a seat somewhere around the classroom and sat down. Ash decided to sit in the seat closest to the door that was also adjacent to Ivy who was sitting at the front of the class, Skye also sat at the front of the classroom two seats to the left of Ivy.

Aquila sat one row behind the front of the classroom near the windows while Ace sat directly in the middle of the classroom and to the left of Shiva who also had Starka sitting next to her on the opposite side to Aceleis while Seth was sitting in the far corner of the classroom at the opposite side to the windows.

After everyone had finished sitting down the teacher began to speak with an enthusiastic ring to her voice.

"Hiya, we're expecting a few others to arrive so feel free to do anything you like while we wait for them to get here."

"Anything?" Ash asked with a mischievous ring to his voice.

"Well not anything. I can't let you burn down the classroom for instance." The teacher replied with a smile before leaning forwards on the desk to support her while she stood and waited for the rest of the class to arrive.

It didn't take long for two more dragons to arrive, both of them were male. The first one was a large fire dragon who was taller than most of the other dragons except Ash and Aceleis. He had a tall muscular build and slightly dark crimson red scales with a lighter shade of red for his underbelly, horns and wing membrane.

His horns came out of the side of his head a short distance behind his yellow eyes and curved out and forwards, stopping a short distance in front of his head. He also had multiple scars covering his body in various places including a larger one running across the right side of his neck and stiff, short spiky reddish brown hair.

The other dragon was significantly shorter and less muscular than the first one and was a wind dragon. He had yellowish brown eyes, shiny light grey scales and his underbelly and wing membrane were pale yellow in colour. He had no horns, his tail was longer than an average dragon's and he also had short spiky white hair that was longer and softer the fire dragon's.

Once the two new dragons had entered the teacher greeted them both with a cheerful smile, while the large fire dragon nodded back in response the smaller wind dragon quick moved to near the back of the class and sat a seat in front of Seth. The larger fire dragon then made his way to the seat to the left of the wind dragon. After they had finished sitting down the teacher began to speak to them.

"Hiya, we still have to wait for two others to arrive. Have you seen anyone else on your way here?"

"Nope." The fire dragon answered flatly.

"Okay, feel free to do whatever you like while we wait for them to get here... Within reason of course."

"Whatever ya say teachie." The fire dragon replied boredly, causing an awkward silence to fill the classroom apart from Starka's quiet giggling.

"Bold move." Ace commented towards the flame dragon with faint smirk.

"I'd prefer it if you called me Lynea." The teacher replied with a slightly offended look upon her face. The fire dragon just shrugged in response.

While that was going on, Seth was talking with the wind dragon.

"Um... Zidane sends his regards." Seth said quietly to the other dragon who was known as Rico.

"Oh..." The wind dragon muttered apprehensively.

"Anyway how'd your holiday go?" He quickly added.

The shadow dragon just shrugged in response.

"Yours?" Seth asked back.

"Nothing much, been training with Riley a little, also went to Zidane's birthday party, but apart from that I didn't really do much."

After a few moments of silence Seth began to speak again.

"He okay?" The shadow dragon said while gesturing at the fire dragon, who was the previously mentioned Riley.

"Yeah, I think he is. We haven't really talked about it."

"Not talked about what?" The fire dragon cutted in. This was followed by another awkward silence. As the conversation finished yet another dragon had began to enter the classroom. As it entered the room the teacher began to speak to it in her usual chirpy voice.

"Hiya, now we just need to wait for one more, please find yourself a seat."

The dragon whom she was speaking to was a large male muscular yet somewhat bulky ice dragon that had bluish slate grey scales that formed armor plates in certain areas and had a multitude of scars and spikes decorating his body, all this together gave the dragon a dangerous appearance. After Lynea had spoken to him the ice dragon just looked at her for a brief moment before walking to the back of the class and sitting at the middle desk located along the back row.

Being a mostly unfamiliar (Ivy having seen him before), not to mention rather intimidating new face. The ice dragon was drawing more than a little attention.

"Hey mate, haven't seen you around before. You new here?" Ash called back towards the ice dragon.

"..."

"Hello?"

"..."

"Can you talk?"

Instead of replying to his questions the ice dragon just glanced at him coldly before looking straight ahead into nothingness again.

As the one-sided conversation that had recently occurred came to a halt, Riley began to chuckle mockingly at Ash's failed attempt to talk to the ice dragon.

"Didn't know it was even possible to ignore ya to the point where ya actually shutted up." Riley commented.

"Hey, I wasn't even talking to you." Ash replied.

"And?"

"Can you two please stop arguing?" Lynea cutted in.

"But he started it." Ash whined.

"It doesn't matter who started it. Could you both please just stop?"

Ash sighed to himself while looking away but as he was looking away he made eye contact with Riley who flashed his middle talon in response while smirking.

A short time after Riley insulted Ash he suddenly felt a sharp pain emanating from one of his ankles, causing him to flinch in response.

When he looked under his desk to check he saw a thick vine retracting away from his leg and sliding under a loose tile from which it originated from.

Riley then looked back up from under his desk with a confused expression on his face. The first thing that met his eyes was Ivy smiling back at him, her eyes glowing slightly but they soon faded back to its original state. Figuring it out that Ivy was the one controlling the vine that whipped his leg, Riley shot a glare towards her in response.

After several uneventful minutes of idle chatter had passed Lynea then began to speak.

"I guess the last person we're waiting for is probably absent, what a shame. I guess we should start without them."

"Anyway I should probably explain the routine layout and what my job is so if any of you are new then you won't get confused. If you already know things from last year then think of this as a recap, okay?"

Some quiet groans could be heard amongst the class but no one caused a fuss about it.

"Okay, for the first lesson of everyday you will all meet in this classroom where we will do small amounts of revision but don't worry the work normally isn't too hard because this lesson really just serves to get you started for the day. Also if there anything important that you might need to know about then I'll also use this lesson to explain things that could occur in the future."

"The days normally begin with a short warm up lesson which happens to be the one you're in. Once you have finished this lesson you can then take a short break which you can spend by exploring some of the building facilities. Once the break is over you will meet back here and be sent as a group down to different class to do another lesson, if you know your own way then you don't have to move down with the rest of the group.

This is followed by a longer break which also serves as time to eat your lunch and explore the building in more detail, also around lunch time most of the building leisure or training facilities become open for you to use along with small staff run clubs, for example you'll probably find me in the arts and crafts room. You can also temporarily leave the building and spend time in the city or park nearby but you have to be back on time or you might find yourself in a spot of trouble. When lunch time is over then you will enter two lessons divided by a small break this could either be two completely different lessons or a longer one split into two parts."

"It is also my job to look after you and make sure everythings okay so if you have any problems that you need to talk about or if you're not sure about something then feel free to track me down and ask for help. Oh and you also might find me teaching you in future lessons, especially if its either art of drama."

"Okay that was quite a mouthful. Does anyone have any questions?"

Once Lynea had finished speaking the room was filled with momentary silence until...

"Nope." Riley commented flatly again.

"Okay we will now begin with the lesson. Today you are going to have to do a basic test so we can see you are good at and what can be improved upon." And with that comment a choir of groaning sounded throughout the classroom.

Lynea then took out a stack of paper and began handing them out.

"You'll find quills and an ink pot inside your desks. Please try your best and if you can't do a question you're allowed to skip over them. Good luck."

Just a few minutes in Ivy started to hear Ash grumble to himself.

"Damn, I was never good at this."

When she turned to see what the problem was out of curiosity she caught Ash peaking at her work and she quickly shot him a glare before using her wing to shield her side. A few moments after she blocked Ash's vision she could hear him muttering quietly to which she rolled her eyes in response.

Many minutes of near silence began to pass although this was occasionally broken by someone talking to themselves or the sounds of complaining from the more vocal dragons in the class.

After many minutes had passed eventually someone stood up to hand in their work, this unexpectedly was Aceleis who as he made his way to the front of the class he had a snide smirk etched onto his face.

As the wind dragon turned his gaze upon Ivy, she glared back at him before returning to her work, as they exchanged glances whispering could be heard a few rows back following by quiet giggling but this was soon cut off when Linea's attention was clearly drawn towards the source.

Shortly after Ace finished handing in his work and sat down, Ivy finished her work and stood up to hand it in her work as well. Once a few more minutes had passed Shiva then finished off shortly followed by Aquila, as Shiva handed in her work she quickly whispered something to Lynea before walking away. When Aquila handed in her work the teacher looked at her work.

"You have beautiful handwriting." Lynea commented sweetly.

"Thank you." Aquila replied shyly before returning to her seat.

A few moments after Aquila sat down, Rico then handed in his test closely followed by Skye and Seth. Once the wind and shadow dragons finished their tests it took quite a while before another stood up. When a few minutes had passed since the last dragons stood up Riley finally finished his work with frustration clear upon his face, this was due to the quiet prompting from Rico who wouldn't let Riley get out the easy way by skipping most of the questions due to him lacking the motivation to answer them.

Once another couple of minutes had passed, the ice dragon who was yet to introduce himself stood up and began walking to the front of the class while ignoring the other dragons starring at him. Most of the dragons had concerned or curious looks on their faces apart from Ace who had a look of amused self satisfaction and Riley who looked partially relieved but in a somewhat malicious manner. Once the last dragon finished handing in his work Lynea then began to speak.

"Okay, that wasn't too hard was it? Now since you've all finished slightly early you can all leave for break earlier as well. I'll tell you all your results later once I've marked these. Have fun."

After the dragons left the classroom, Ash broke into conversation with Ivy.

"So how'd you do?"

"Not sure, how did you find my answers?" She replied sarcastically.

Ash just smiled back sheepishly in response before walking away with Ivy following closely behind. As they were walking away Ash called back towards Skye.

"Hey newbie. If you like you could tag along with us for a while if ya want?"

"Erm... Okay?" Skye replied cautiously.

As the rest of the class made their way towards the exit, Aquila stepped aside to let them pass. Once the rest of the class had finished leaving the classroom while mostly ignoring her she went to make her own way out but as she attempted to, a certain ice dragon whom she forgot about due to his silence was also waiting for the others to leave and tried to pass through at the same time as she was about to. This caused her to flinch in surprise.

"S s sorry." she muttered nervously.

"..."

The dragon remained silent. Instead he just stopped and looked towards her. Aquila only became more nervous as their eyes met, for the ice dragon's eyes seemed to be completely devoid of emotion and feelings while Aquila's only showed fear and panic. The ice dragon then turned and walked away without giving her a second glance. As the ice dragon walked away Aquila could hear Lynea speak to her.

"Are you okay? I can see you shivering from here." She said warmly.

"I, I'm okay." Aquila replied, her voice still quaking slightly.

"Are you sure?"

"Uh huh." Aquila said whilst nodding slightly in confirmation.

"Okay, if you say so. But if you ever need to talk about anything then please let me know." Lynea said with a smile.

Aquila nodded back before quickly leaving the room.

* * *

While Aquila was speaking with Linea, elsewhere in the college a small group of dragons were navigating the corridors. The group of dragons were of course Ash, Ivy and Skye who were making their way to Ash's commonly used meeting point where he always went to when he wanted to meet up with the rest of his friends.

After a short trip through a multitude of twists and turns, eventually they made their way through a door and into a small garden with a fountain in the middle. A cobbled pathway lead through the middle of the garden and around the fountain while various plants grew around the borders of the pathway and garden. There was no-one else to be seen in the garden, except them of course.

Once the trio of dragons entered the garden, Ash headed over to the fountain in the middle and slumped against it with one arm leaning on the ridge of the fountain for support while Ivy walked a short distance away and sat down on the grass before pulling a book out of her satchel that hung from one of her sides. Skye on the other hand just stopped and looked around, unsure what to do. It wasn't long before Ash began to speak towards the other male.

"Sooo, Skye was it? Tell me a bit 'bout yourself. We're gonna be in the same class so we might as well get ta know each other. Eh?"

The wind dragon scratched the back of his head nervously before replying.

"Well, erm, I'm a wind dragon, but you probably already guessed that. I'm kinda new to town, well I have been here before during the holidays to explore and gather info on the college and stuff and I've spent quite a long time gathering enough money to pay the admission fee along with the amount needed to last me a few weeks on top of that, but if I don't find a way to make money fast then I might not have enough money to day myself food or shelter."

As the wind dragon explained his predicament, Ash's eyes lit up as he had an idea. Just as he was about to speak though, Ivy quickly interrupted.

"Ash? You mind coming over here for a sec?"

"One moment." Ash said towards Skye before turning away and approaching Ivy. Once the two dragons were out of earshot they began speaking to each other in hushed whispers. Skye couldn't make much out of it but from what he could deduce from their facial expressions apparently Ash had an idea or wanted to say something that Ivy was in heavy disagreement with.

After a few moments of talking amongst each other and occasionally glancing at Skye, Ash eventually walked back towards the wind dragon with a defeated expression upon his face.

"Never mind." He muttered.

Just as Ash had finished settling down, suddenly Skye saw something darting towards them but before he could react to tell Ash it had already crossed the entire garden, propelled itself off the edge of fountain and dive bombed Ash, driving him into the ground. The interloper was none other that Sparky, who sitting on top of Ash while laughing excitedly, Ash was also chuckling but with his face contorted slightly from pain.

"IgotyouAsh youdidntseemecoming didya didya?" The hyperactive dragon yelled while jumping up and down slightly.

"Okay... can...you... get... off... me... now." Ash said in between groans.

"OKAY!" Sparky replied loudly.

Once the young lightning dragon had jumped of Ash he quickly looked around before spotting a butterfly and began chasing it eagerly. While Sparky leapt around after the butterfly, laughter filled the garden.

"Makes you almost feel sorry for his teacher." Ash commented in between chuckles.

After a few more moments of waiting, two other dragons entered the garden. The first one was Haile who was being accompanied by a significantly smaller ice dragon.

The smaller ice dragon had a small and slender build that was heavily lacking in muscle and he was covered in light blue, almost white scales, he also had a light slate blue underbelly while his wings were off-white in colour. His eyes were a similar colour to his underbelly although they were brighter and more vibrant.

He had two short white horns that started a short distance behind his eyes went backwards, first curving upwards a short distance before curving down with the tips pointing directly towards the floor. The smaller ice dragon was wearing a small off-white bandana that was the same colour as his wing membrane that was tied around his neck. He also had short faded light blue hair that was tied together to form a thin ponytail.

As the two dragons approached, Haile had his typically stoic look imprinted on his face while the smaller dragon was looking around the garden with his eyes stopping as soon as they fell upon Skye. The smaller dragons footsteps slowed as he stared at the wind dragon but once Haile began to pull away from his side the dragon quickened his pace to match Haile's.

"Hey what took ya so long Haile?" Ash asked once the two ice dragons got close enough.

"Different timetable." Haile replied blankly.

"Oookay... Anyway hows it going?"

"Nothing of any immediate interest or in need of neither mentioning nor reference has occurred since our last gathering and henceforth my day up until this current timeframe has been far from exhilarating, in fact my current opinion on the day could be explained simply as thoroughly lacking."

After he finished speaking, Haile stopped to admire the vacant look upon Ash's face with amusement.

"Honestly Ash... I will never grow tired of the look on your face whenever I talk like that." Haile said while chuckling to himself.

Ash attempted to open his mouth to speak but he couldn't think of anything to say so instead he stood still with his mouth open slightly with a confused expression etched onto his face.

"My day hasn't been very interesting." Haile clarified after realising that if he waited for Ash to figure out his previous comments then he'd be waiting there forever.

"Oh okay. I don't suppose you had to do that test thingy as well?" Ash finally replied.

"Pretty much."

"Hard wasn't it?"

"Not really."

"What do you mean, not really?"

"The evaluation exam they handed out to everyone was far from what I would call challenging."

Instead of replying and making himself look even more mentally inferior in comparison to Haile, Ash decided to change the subject.

"So hows it going anyway Snowe?"

The small ice dragon who was busy looking at Skye, unsure who it was or whenever to say anything suddenly flinched in surprise when Ash began to speak to him and quickly turned around to speak.

"Um... w what?"

Ivy, seeing the smaller dragons nervous reaction, decided to interrupt the conversation.

"Are you okay Snowe? You seem to be preoccupied with something."

"O oh... It's n nothing." He replied while looking back at Skye curiously.

"The newbie? Oh yeah, you haven't met him before. Why don't you go over and say hi? He seems like a good kid. Although I've only just met him myself." Ash commented while looking in the same direction and nudging Snowe forwards with his tail. As Snowe began walking away everyone suddenly turned their attention to a loud splash followed by Ivy giggling.

The sight that greeted them was the back end of Sparky sticking out of the fountain with the butterfly he was chasing fluttering away. Once the lightning dragon climbed out of the fountain he shook himself dry, sending partially electrified droplets of water everywhere.

"Sparky. Be careful." Ivy said in between giggles while using her wings to shield herself from the specks of water flying everywhere."

"Didyouseewherethebutterflywent Iwaschasingitandthenitsuddenlydisappeared andthenthefountainwasthereandthenIfellinandthebutt erflygotaway unlessIgotitwhileIwaschasingit didIgetdidIdidI? Imightofgotitbutwasentpayingattentionbutimprettysu reIwaspayingattention atleastIthinkIwaspayingattention whatifIwasn'tpayingattentiontoifIwaspayingattentio n isit possibletonotpayattentiontoifyou'repayingattention ifsothenmaybeImighthavealreadygotit did IgetitIwasen'tpayingattentiontoifIwaspayingattenti ondidyouguysseeifIgotitornotifIdidn'tcouldyoutellm ewhereitwentifitwentanywhereunlessyouwasn'tpayinga ttentioneitherandinthatcasewhywasn'tyoupayingatten tiondidyoualsoseesomethingintrestingtoodidyadidyai fyoudidcouldyoutellmewhatyousawtoo? huh huh?" Sparky yelled while bouncing up and down excitedly.

"Eh? What?" Ash said while looking between the other dragons with bewilderment clear upon his face. Everyone else just responded with equally confused looks on their faces and a lot of awkward silence.

"Anyone get that?" He continued. Instead of replying everyone else seemed to be staring at something else rather than paying attention to what he was saying. When he looked in the same direction everyone else was looking towards his face screwed up to suppress laughing. What he saw was the butterfly that Sparky was previously chasing, resting upon his head while remaining out of his field of vision.

"HeyguyswhatareyoustaringatisitmeamIdoingsomething interestingorissomethingbehindme? Ohitsthatinterestingthingthatyouguysarekeepingfrom meisitbehindmeifitisthenwhatisbehindmeisithebutter flythatIwaschasingorisitsomethingelsemaybeitssomet hingbetterthanthebutterflythatIwaschasingbutifitis thenwhatismorebetterthanchasingbutterflies? I KNOW itstwobutterfliesisntitisntit? whyarntyouspeakingtomeguysI'mrightheretalkingtoyou orareyoutoobusystaringatthebutterfliesifsocanIchas ethem can I can I? huh huh?"

As the hyperactive young dragon spoke, the butterfly that was sitting on his head began to fly off. Once Sparky finally noticed the butterfly that he was previously chasing fly off he quickly leapt after it but missed it by inches which caused him to fall over again, much to the other dragons amusement.

Realising that his mark had escaped the young lightning dragon quickly turned his attention on a new hunting target, this being something moving through the grass. Once seeing the sudden movement, Sparky began chasing it eagerly, not realising that it was just the wind blowing through the grass.

"Makes you almost feel sorry for his teacher." Haile commented in between quiet chuckles.

"Is he always like this?" Skye asked with concern.

"Well he does calm down a little when he's taken his meds." Ash answered.

"When does he take his meds? If you don't mind me asking?"

"Around lunch time. Ivy's the one that takes care of it though. Isn't that right sweetheart?"

"Only because you wouldn't know responsibility if it bit you on the tail and Haile is too busy babysitting you." Ivy replied irritably.

"Now, now. I don't babysit Ash through choice." Haile replied.

"Is it pick on Ash day today or something?" Ash complained.

"To be fair, we're only stating facts." Haile commented with subtle smile.

"What do you mean facts? Name one time that I've been irresponsible."

After Ash had finished that sentence. Hail, Ivy and Snowe all began drifting deep into thought to recall past memories. On the other hand Skye just stood there watching the ponderous expressions on the three dragons faces while Sparky dived into a moving patch of grass.

"There was the time you dived into a lake, without checking how deep it was..." Haile finally replied.

"How about when you tried to show off your flying skills to a couple of girls and crashed into a tree?" Ivy added.

"And that time when you took on too many opponents in the training room and spent almost an entire day in the hospital." Snowe answered.

"When you were lifting weights with your teeth and pulled a muscle in your neck." Ivy continued.

"Remember that time when you got lost and ended up in the female shower room?" Haile mentioned.

"And when you had the nerve to comment on how I looked afterwards." Ivy muttered.

"There was also that time when you choked on a bone after eating too fast." Snowe recalled.

"How about that time when we left you to look after Sparky and he ate from a pot of coffee granules." Haile reminessed.

"There were those countless times when you dragged us along on your little adventures without preparing properly." Ivy commented.

"There was that time when you..." Haile began.

"I only said one... not a thousand." Ash interrupted.

"I haven't mentioned a thousand yet... I could probably think of a thousand though." Haile shot back.

"I doubt you could think of that many." Ash muttered.

"Oh really... how about that time when..." Haile began.

"Okay, okay... I get it, I'm irresponsible." Ash admitted with reluctance.

After another bout of laughter at Ash's expense, Haile began pushing Snowe gently with his tail while whispering to the young dragon.

"The others believe that it would be logical if you were to become acquainted with the new arrival. It's likely that we would be spending more time with Skye in the near future."

"H how do I start?" Snowe whispered back nervously.

"Introduce yourself and ask a simple question to strike up a conversation."

"L, like?"

"You should probably start working on your independence rather than relying on me all the time... But that can wait for now... Try asking about where he comes from, about his family or what his hobbies are."

"O okay."

As the smaller ice dragon approached Skye up close, the wind dragon began to speak.

"Need something?"

"N n no... I mean y yes."

An awkward silence followed while Snowe gathered the words he was looking for along with the courage to use them. After a few moments had passed, Skye began to speak again.

"Are you okay? You seem scared."

"I its I mean I I'm okay... urm... Th the other k k keep t telling me th that I sh should talk to y y you." Snowe muttered with his voice quivering.

"Did you want to?... talk to me I mean."

"N n no I mean y y yes, urm, I d d don't know."

"Hey! what you two talking about?" Ash questioned while suddenly cutting in.

"WAAAH!" Snowe yelped while almost jumping out of his scales.

"P pleas don't m make me j jump like th that." Snowe whimpered while crouched down towards the ground with his eyes tightly closed.

"Poor thing." Ivy muttered to herself.

After Ash accidently made the younger dragon jump, Haile quickly moved forward and began covering Snowe with his wing for reassurance before turning towards Ash with a small frown creasing his face.

"Why?" Haile asked flatly.

"Why what?" Ash replied

"Why did you have to make Snowe jump like that?"

"I wasn't trying to..."

"You already know how he reacts to sudden noises. Is it so difficult to remember not to talk so loudly?"

"Sorry, I forgot for a moment."

Instead of saying anything else, Haile just sighed before unshielding Snowe.

"So... What are you two talking about then?" Ash repeated.

"N nothing much."

Before Ash could ask any more questions Haile interrupted him.

"Ash. You really shouldn't pry whenever someone is having a conversation. It's considered rude."

"In other words haul yourself over here. My arms getting tired." Ivy said whilst gesturing towards Sparky who was chasing after a rubber ball that she had been throwing for him to retrieve. On hearing his friends request Ash immediately turned around and ran towards Ivy while chuckling before saying.

"Chuck the ball over here. Lets see If Sparky can keep up."

* * *

**YAY! I finally got this (Way overdue) chapter out. **

**If you find any typos or have any suggestions (Based on my writing style or even whose perspective you want the story to come from next) then I'd be happy to hear them.**

**Also I'm almost always up for a random conversation if you're just looking for someone to talk to.**

**Anyways I hope you're enjoying the story so far.**

**Random news: At some point I'm going to put some character profiles on my profile page. Feel free to give it a looksie. (Although they might not be up yet at the time you're reading this.)**

**_"If I were to buy a boat of some kind... would I then be referred to as Captain, Captain Walrus?"_**

_"Random musings of the Walrus"_


End file.
